Slicer

ABSTRACT

A slicer having two groups of knife blades, each group formed by a plurality of blades, secured side-by-side in two pairs of blade holders. Each pair of blade holders secures one group of knife blades and is provided with a groove between each blade of the supported group through which a blade of the other group of blades passes to define a very narrow opening between adjacent blades. The groups of blades are reciprocated in opposite directions to perform the slicing.

-by-side in s secures provided with a groove pported group through whicha ades passes to define a very narrow opening between adjacent blades.The groups of blades meterences Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 9/1937Poulin.......................... 11/1937 Fincke.........

groups of knife blades, each 4/1942 Brustowsky.... 11/1945Criner...........,..............

Primary ExaminerAndrew R. .Iuhasz Assistant Examiner-Z. R. Bilinskyformed by a plurality of blades, secured side two pairs of bladeholders. Each pair of blade holder Attorney-Stevens, Davis, Miller &Mosher AQSTIRAIIT: A slicer having two group one group of knife bladesand is between each blade of the su 55 blade of the other group of blare reciprocated in opposite directions to perform the slicing.

1 as 26 24 as Inventor lKatsushiTakahashi No. 1,021, Miynto, Asakn-shi,Saltamaprefecture, Japan 883,807 Dec. 10, 1969 Patented Dec. 21, 1971Priority Dec. 21, 1968 Japan 43/93 446 2 Claims, 4 Drawing Figs.

[54] SMCER [50] Field of ahszmml MTENTEH mm m SHEET 1 [IF 3 PATENTEDBEEN l9?! SHEET 2 [1F 3 PATENTED BECZ] l9?! SHEET 3 OF 3 sucnnDESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART In the prior art slicers for slicingelongated food stuff, such as ham, bacon, cheese and bread into verythin slices, it has been very difficult to slice such foodstuff intovery thin slices since the holding members for supporting knife bladeson one side are located side by side adjacent to holding members forsupporting the knife blades on the opposite side. This causes thespacing between two knife blades disposed side by side .to be determinednecessarily by a thickness of the respective holding member thusrendering it very difficult to reduce the spacing to the desired value.It may be conceivable to make holding members each having a thickness assmall as possible so as to reduce the spacing between knife blades asdesired. However, holding members of very small thickness cannot supportand secure the knife blades positively and hence may result in unduevibration of the knife blades thereby rendering it difficult to slicethe foodstuff into slices of uniform and desired thickness.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a slicer, moreparticularly to a slicer for slicing foodstuff, such as ham, bacon,cheese and bread, into very thin slices.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide a slicerhaving two groups of knife blades, one group of which is actuated in onedirection anddisposed alternately with the other group of knife bladesactuated in the opposite direction so as to have a spacing between twoblades of different groups reduced to very small value.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a slicer havingone group of knife blades reciprocated within grooves defined betweenrespective holding members for knife blades of the other group. Theother group is adapted to be reciprocated in a sense oppositely toreciprocation of said one group of knife blades.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a slicer inwhich the knife blades can be easily replaced.

According to the present invention, there is provided a slicer forslicing foodstuff, such as ham, bacon, cheese and bread, into very thinslices by causing one group of knife blades supported side by side onrespective holding members to be reciprocated within grooves definedbetween holding members having the other group of knife blades supportedside by side thereon.

One preferable embodiment of the present invention will be described indetail hereinafter by way of example with reference to the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view showing the general arrangement ofthe slicer according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view in enlarged scale showing thesupport members for the knife blades in detail;

FIG. 3 is a front view showing the arrangement of knife blades and thesupport members; and

FIG. 4 is a sectional view in enlarged scale taken along line IV--IV inFIG. 3.

Now referring to FIG. I, a crank shaft 2 is rotatably supported onbearings l mounted on a lower part of frame F. A driving wheel 3 havingbelts (not shown) passing thereover is mounted on the crankshaft 2 atthe left end thereof. A pair of connecting rods 5 and 7 have their lowerends rotatably fitted over the crank pins 4 and 5 respectively, formedintegrally with the crank shaft 2. The pair of connecting rods 6 and 7have their upper ends connected to lower ends of reciprocating rods and11, respectively, by means of pivot pins 8 and 9. The reciprocating rods10 and 11 are connected to holding members 14 and 15, respectively, byinserting reduced portions 12 and 13 of the reciprocating rods 10 and 11into bores of the holding members 14 and 15 and clamping the upper endsof the reciprocating rods 10 and 11 by nuts 16 and 17. Support members18 and 19 are secured respectively to the upper ends of holding members14 and 15 by means of bolts 20 and 21. A guide table 23 is adjust-ablymounted across the holding members 14 and 15 and is centered over thelatter. Foodstuff 22, such as ham, bacon, cheese and bread, is mountedon the guide table 23 and moved to the left, with reference to FIG. 1,by means of a pusher P, which is movable horizontally along uppersurface of the guide table 23, and will be sliced by means of thenumerous knife blades which are reciprocated vertically as described indetail hereafter. The pusher P may be moved manually or mechanically bymeans of a suitable link mechanism (not shown) at a predetermined heightabove the guide table 23. A shaft 24 is provided on one end with a cranklever 25 and with a bevel gear 26 on the other end. Another bevel gear27, meshing with the abovementioned bevel gear 26, is fixedly mounted ona screw rod 28. A horizontal arm 29, threadedly engaging threads 23, onthe screw rod 28, is mounted on one side of a carrier member 30 (toright in FIG. 1) which is moved vertically toward and away from theframe F. A guide member 31 is fixedly mounted on the other side of thecarrier member 30 (the left side in FIG. 1) and another guide member 32is fixedly mounted on the guide table 23 so as to cooperate with theguide member 31 thereby maintaining all the knife blades in a straightconditron.

Referring to FIGS. 2, 3 and 4, a number of the support members forsecuring the knife blades on the holding members 14 and 15 are shown.Since the manner in which the knife blades are secured on variousholding members is similar throughout the device, only the holdingmember 15 will be described for the purpose of convenience. A connector33 having a slot m is secured to the holding member 15 by means of aclamping member 34 such as a bolt (FIG. 2). A book member 36 is weldedto one end of a supporting rod 35, the other end of which is insertedinto the above-mentioned slot m and a diagonal opening h communicatingtherewith. The hook member 36 is provided at the free end thereof with arecess 14 in which a pin 37,,, provided on one end of the knife blade 37(the upper end in FIG. 2) will engage, while another pin t provided onthe other end of knife blade: 37 (the lower end in FIG. 2) engages in arecess v in the support member 19. The supporting rod 35 is provided atits other end with a stopper nut 38. A resilient member 39, such as acoil spring, is inserted between the stopper nut 38 and the connector33. The knife blade 37 is urged upwardly in a straight line at all timesby means of the resilient member 39 which acts in the directionindicated by the arrow.

Another supporting rod 40 is inserted into an opening I which isprovided on the connector 33 separately from the above-mentioned openingh. Another hook member 41 is welded to the lower end of supporting rod40. A recess 41,, (FIG. 3) is formed on the hook member 41 at the sameelevation as that of the recess u of the hook member 36. A knife blade42 of the same construction as that of the knife blade 37 is connectedto the hook member 41 by means of a pin (not shown) engaging with therecess 41 A resilient member 44, such as a coil spring, is insertedbetween a stopper nut 43 at the upper end of the supporting rod 40 andthe connector 33. The knife blade 42 will be urged upwardly in astraight line at all times by means of the resilient member 44 whichacts in the direction shown by the arrow. The hook members 36 and 41 aremutually disposed side by side with a small groove provided therebetweenand with their recess on the hooked ends (upper ends in FIG. 3)maintained at the: same level. The knife blades 48 and 49 are secured tothe holding member by hook members 46 and 47 in a similar manner andneed not be described further.

The elevation at which book members 46 and 47 are mounted on the holdingmember 14 is made different from that at which the hook members 36 and41 are mounted on the holding member 15, as shown in FIG. 3, by makingthe elevation at which the holding member 14 is connected to thereciprocating rod 10 different from that at which the holding member 15is connected to the reciprocating rod 11, as shown in FIG. 1. Pins 48,,and 49 provided on the upper ends of the joining hook members atbladesupporting portions y. Each of Y the knife blades 48 and 49 isdisposed to pass through the above-mentioned grooves d. Cutting edges 0of the knife blades 37 and 42-are directed to the right, with referenceto FIG. 1, so as to slice foodstuff, such as ham, bacon, cheese andbread, placed in the right side and moved toward the knife blades bypusher P. A prime mover for driving the crank shaft 2 and a conveyormeans for transferring sliced foodstuff can be provided in addition tothe above-mentioned members. However, since they have no bearing on themerit of the present invention directly, no further description will begiven.

In operation, a lump of foodstuff 22 is placed on the guide table 23 andwill be pushed forward to the cutting edges C of the knife blades,extending vertically side by side by means of a pusher P, which is movedto the left with reference to FIG. 1, and the foodstuff is held againstvertical motion between the guide members 31 and 32. The prime moverdrives the crank shaft 2 through driving wheel 3. Accordingly, theholding members l4, 15 are reciprocated simultaneously and in oppositedirections to each other by action of the connecting rods 6 and 7 andthe reciprocating rods 10 and l 1, while being maintained in parallelside by side condition, thereby causing one group of knife blades 37 and42 and another group of knife blades 48 and 49 mounted side by side onthe holding members 14 and 15, respectively, to be reciprocatedsimultaneously but in opposite directions. When the foodstuff 22 isprogressively pushed along the table 23 by means of the pusher P, to theleft with reference to FIG. 1, it will be sliced instantaneously bymeans of the groups of knife blades 37, 42 and 48, 49 reciprocating inopposite directions to each other. At this time, since the foodstuff 22is held between the guide members 31 and 32 and prevented from beingmoved vertically, it will be sliced easily and rapidly into slices ofuniform thickness by means of the cutting edges C. The sliced foodstuffwill have a uniform appearance. Furthermore, the slicer according to thepresent invention will have a spacing between two adjoining knife bladesmuch smaller than that of the conventional slicer. Therefore, thefoodstuff may be sliced into slices of very small and uniform thicknessby means of the present slicer, whereas it was not possible to makeslices of thickness less than a certain value in the known conventionalslicers.

In addition, there will be no need of making a blade supporting portionheavy despite the very small spacing between adjoining knife blades. Anumber of grooves are formed between supporting members supporting theknife blades moving in one direction so as to accommodate the knifeblades moving in opposite directions. Thus, the construction of theslicer according to the present invention is not complicated, and thesame construction may be applied to each holding member therebyrendering the assembly very simple and fast.

In case of breaking of some of the knife blades, they may be replacedvery easily by releasing and engaging a few pins on the knife bladeswhich are adapted to be engaged with recesses of the hook members orsupporting members.

I claim:

1. A slicer for making a plurality of uniform, thin slices in a singleoperation comprising, a frame, first and second holding members mountedfor opposing, reciprocal, motion in said frame, each said holding memberhaving substantially parallel, spaced upper and lower portions, firstand second groups of knife blades, each group being formed by aplurality of individual knife blades, means to mount said first andsecond groups of knife blades in said first and second holding members,respectively, and comprising support members fixedly mounted on saidlower portion and hook means adjustably mounted on said upper portion,said hook means being mounted in an alternatin manner normal to anddiagonal to said knife blades, a plura ity of grooves formed in saidupper and lower portions of each of said holding members between each ofthe knife blades mounted therein, said holding members being mounted insaid frame at different elevations but in substantially the samevertical plane with the knife blades of one group passing through thegrooves in the opposite holding member so as to be parallel to andclosely spaced from the knife blades of the other groups of knifeblades, and means to reciprocate said holding means in opposingdirections.

2. A slicer according to claim 1 further comprising a plurality 'ofalternating diagonal and normal openings formed in said upper portion ofeach of said holding members, each said hook means comprising asupporting rod, hook member fixed to one end of said rod and adjustingmeans connected to the other end of said rod, said rods being mounted topass through said openings, and resilient means mounted to act on saidsupporting rod whereby the knife blade attached thereto is kept underconstant tension.

1. A slicer for making a plurality of uniform, thin slices in a singleoperation comprising, a frame, first and second holding members mountedfor opposing, reciprocal, motion in said frame, each said holding memberhaving substantially parallel, spaced upper and lower portions, firstand second groups of knife blades, each group being formed by aplurality of individual knife blades, means to mount said first andsecond groups of knife blades in said first and second holding members,respectively, and comprising support members fixedly mounted on saidlower portion and hook means adjustably mounted on said upper portion,said hook means being mounted in an alternating manner normal to anddiagonal to said knife blades, a plurality of grooves formed in saidupper and lower portions of each of said holding members between each ofthe knife blades mounted therein, said holding members being mounted insaid frame at different elevations but in substantially the samevertical plane with the knife blades of one group passing through thegrooves in the opposite holding member so as to be parallel to andclosely spaced from the knife blades of the other groups of knifeblades, and means to reciprocate said holding means in opposingdirections.
 2. A slicer according to claim 1 further comprising aplurality of alternating diagonal and normal openings formed in saidupper portion of each of said holding members, each said hook meanscomprising a supporting rod, hook member fixed to one end of said rodand adjusting means connected to the other end of said rod, said rodsbeing mounted to pass through said openings, and resilient means mountedto act on said supporting rod whereby the knife blade attached theretois kept under constant tension.